Our day started pretty early. Ok, we left at 7:30. But that's still pretty early. LOL We walked down to the water's edge and got into some small boats. Ben warned Dori about the hippos. And, yep, saw a bunch of them not far away from shore. After a very short ride, we were at the edge of Victoria's Falls. We were brought to the shore where there were ropes in the water. They kind of followed some rocks. So, I thought we were walking across the rocks. Nope! We got into the river! (Yes, the river with hippos). It was an interesting swim. Our guide kept us close and we did almost a zig-zag pattern. If you strayed from that, you could feel the current. Oh, and the water was very... refreshing.
After a short swim, we climbed into the Devil's Pool. This is a natural occurring pool right at the edge of the falls. It is a deep pool, so as a result, the water is calm. Even though you are right at the edge of the world's largest waterfall. Did I mention we were at the edge??? It was pretty cool. After we got our pictures taken (on someone else's camera, still waiting on them to give them to me), we went back into the water to swim back to shore. They served us a wonderful breakfast (they had amazing biscuits!) and then we headed back to the hotel.
After a short break, we headed out for our next adventure - white water rafting! We took a truck to the midway point in the Zambezi River's rapids (there are 25 rapids: we started at 10 because some in the first 10 are class 5 rapids. And it would be an all day thing). After a brief safety training, we were given our gear for a hike down the hill. Yeah. We were told that it was a steep climb down, but that doesn't begin to explain it! It was steep. And the "path" was a bunch of branches made into a ladder put on the ground. It was an exhausting climb. My legs were like jello. The branches/logs were slightly slippery. No hand rails. But I made it!
It took a while for the whole group to make it down (interesting fact: the fastest one of the porters can go up and down is 22 minutes). Once down, we loaded up in our rafts and headed out. In our raft was Alex, Kevin, Andrew (Poto), Ben, me and our guide Scott. It didn't take us to long to get to the first of the exciting rapids - 12 a,b and c also named "the 3 ugly sisters" followed immediately by rapid 13, "the mother." We let the other 2 rafts go through first. And they both flipped. We made it through the rapids, in tact. Phew. Once cleared from the rapids, we went into rescue mode and helped get the ones that fell out of the rafts. We pulled Meredith and Scott out. They both were completely speechless and stunned. It took a few minutes for them to snap out of that. And by then, everyone was back in their rafts. (Along with the rafts were a few helpers in kayaks that helped retrieve people and paddles out of the water).
We had a little bit of a break on rapids 14-17. And then it was rapid 18 - Oblivion. Once again, we went last. At was another exciting ride! This time only one raft flipped. And the other one lost a member (Jessica). But our raft was still unflipped!
Rapid 23 we were allowed to get out of the raft and ride them ourselves. Of course we had to do that! Although, a few that flipped at the mother decided to stay in the boat. It was much more exciting than I was expecting! One wave totally crashed into my face and knocked my glasses off (luckily I had them tied on).
Our guide Scot was from the UK. When he wanted us to paddle, he would say, "Forward, team, please." But because of his accent, we thought he was saying, "Forward, beasties!" So, that became our team name. We also may have gotten a little cocky and after clearing rapids, we would air guitar for the camera.
After a short swim, we climbed into the Devil's Pool. This is a natural occurring pool right at the edge of the falls. It is a deep pool, so as a result, the water is calm. Even though you are right at the edge of the world's largest waterfall. Did I mention we were at the edge??? It was pretty cool. After we got our pictures taken (on someone else's camera, still waiting on them to give them to me), we went back into the water to swim back to shore. They served us a wonderful breakfast (they had amazing biscuits!) and then we headed back to the hotel.
After a short break, we headed out for our next adventure - white water rafting! We took a truck to the midway point in the Zambezi River's rapids (there are 25 rapids: we started at 10 because some in the first 10 are class 5 rapids. And it would be an all day thing). After a brief safety training, we were given our gear for a hike down the hill. Yeah. We were told that it was a steep climb down, but that doesn't begin to explain it! It was steep. And the "path" was a bunch of branches made into a ladder put on the ground. It was an exhausting climb. My legs were like jello. The branches/logs were slightly slippery. No hand rails. But I made it!
It took a while for the whole group to make it down (interesting fact: the fastest one of the porters can go up and down is 22 minutes). Once down, we loaded up in our rafts and headed out. In our raft was Alex, Kevin, Andrew (Poto), Ben, me and our guide Scott. It didn't take us to long to get to the first of the exciting rapids - 12 a,b and c also named "the 3 ugly sisters" followed immediately by rapid 13, "the mother." We let the other 2 rafts go through first. And they both flipped. We made it through the rapids, in tact. Phew. Once cleared from the rapids, we went into rescue mode and helped get the ones that fell out of the rafts. We pulled Meredith and Scott out. They both were completely speechless and stunned. It took a few minutes for them to snap out of that. And by then, everyone was back in their rafts. (Along with the rafts were a few helpers in kayaks that helped retrieve people and paddles out of the water).
We had a little bit of a break on rapids 14-17. And then it was rapid 18 - Oblivion. Once again, we went last. At was another exciting ride! This time only one raft flipped. And the other one lost a member (Jessica). But our raft was still unflipped!
Rapid 23 we were allowed to get out of the raft and ride them ourselves. Of course we had to do that! Although, a few that flipped at the mother decided to stay in the boat. It was much more exciting than I was expecting! One wave totally crashed into my face and knocked my glasses off (luckily I had them tied on).
Our guide Scot was from the UK. When he wanted us to paddle, he would say, "Forward, team, please." But because of his accent, we thought he was saying, "Forward, beasties!" So, that became our team name. We also may have gotten a little cocky and after clearing rapids, we would air guitar for the camera.
After an adrenaline filled day, it was so nice to have a nice and peaceful dinner on the lawn of the Royal Livingstone.
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